4 ms·
"Services like AirBnB and Uber can be great for entrepreneurs, investors, part-time workers, and consumers. We should be reminded that disrupting industries som
by Kurtz79 11y ago
"Services like AirBnB and Uber can be great for entrepreneurs, investors, part-time workers, and consumers. We should be reminded that disrupting industries sometimes creates losers in the working and middle class that don't have an easy way to switch jobs in some countries or economies."
This is absolutely true, but it has always been so, for countless professions across the centuries.
Industrialization, automatization, globalization have caused many people to lose their livelihood due to the obsolescence of their industry and profession, but the net result has always been a richer, more modern society (whether if 'happier' or 'better', it's hard to say).
Taxi drivers happen to be a much more vocal, compact and uniform community, and that's why they appear more in the news, but there are countless other people being affected by technical progress on a daily basis (from journalist to shoe repairers to travel agents).
While it might not be a zero-sum game, to reference a famous pg essay, it's a bit naive thinking that entrepreneurs can create value out of nothing, without affecting the existing status-quo in other ways than positive ones.
Instead of fighting it by enforcing ad-hoc laws, governments and unions should work towards creating the conditions so that the affected workers are able to find other occupations, IMHO.
- rtpg 11y agoThe prime difference between Uber and, say, factory automatization is that it's not certain that Uber is strictly better. All things considered, full-time drivers make less with Uber, have less benefits, and are generally worse off. There's huge amounts of literature concerning the effects of, say, not having health insurance on general job performance (spoilers: it doesn't make them better at their jobs). So in the end we get lower quality rides, even if they're cheaper (which they aren't always due to surge pricing!) Obsession with lower costs inevitably bring about generally lower quality goods, empirically (already happened with food and consumer goods, compare a French supermarket with an American one).
- pkkim 11y agoI think there are at least two ways in which Uber is intrinsically better: One, Uber Pool, which uses network effects and a computerized super-dispatcher to let riders share cabs. Two, the concentration of capital in Uber compared to taxi companies allows investment and research in driverless cars. These result purely from Uber's size and the infrastructure which enables and is enabled by that size.
- dylanjermiah 11y agoIt is certain that Uber is the superior alternative. People are not stupid, they wouldn't drive or ride if it wasn't their best option. Anecdotally Uber is 300% cheaper and arrives in 5mins as opposed to 55 in my city. You've referenced literature and empirical evidence, citations please.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- fennecfoxen 11y ago> The prime difference between Uber and, say, factory automatization is that it's not certain that Uber is strictly better. In practice, though, as a quasi-frequent user of taxi service in a variety of cities (NYC, Atlanta, Chicago) who doesn't even care much about the price (as I get to expense most of those rides)... I'd opine that Uber is strictly better, even though the taxis a variety of huge advantages (like a straightforward airport pickup procedure).
- nemo44x 11y agoUber does give you the ability to choose higher quality if you'd like. An UberX is a low quality ride by a likely inexperienced driver with the benefit that it is cheap. An Uber Black gives you a nicer car with a very likely (but not necessarily, but in my experience they are professional private limo drivers) experienced driver. I agree on our societies approach to "value" only relating to cost at the expense of quality - but that's a different topic all together.